Hui followed after Chen Wuya, hurrying along. “Senior… why did you stop me? What would have happened if I chose the needles instead? The pavilions only show an illusion, right?”

“What is illusory can become real, and what is real can become illusory. If you make a different choice in your soul and come to regret your path, your entire Dao can crumble. Fen Long is trying to destroy my cultivation from the foundation,” Chen Wuya declared.

How dangerous! I never even considered such a danger. I really have to keep my eyes open, Hui thought, nodding to himself. Even as I get more powerful, so, too, will my enemies. If I’m devoted to not dying, I need to be able to fend off much more than mere death!

He tilted his head. “Eh, but if I picked the needles, then…”

“You were me. Not that it would have, but that fool Fen Long probably thinks it could have influenced me if I saw someone else walk a different path. After all this time, I’m not going to allow someone else break my streak.” He laughed, looking over his shoulder at the ruined pavilion, now sliced in two. “No matter how many times you gave me this choice, I won’t change my mind.”

As if in response to his words, the pavilion faded away. They walked through endless poppies once more.

Hui glanced at Chen Wuya from the corner of his eyes. “Senior… you’ve known that Fen Long senior for a long time, haven’t you?”

“Heh. He’s one of those irreplaceable childhood friends… the kind that won’t die, even if you kill him.” He rubbed his face, still wearing a smile. When his hand passed, only a frown remained.

Relationship status: it’s complicated, Hui thought to himself, nodding.

“Xiao Hui, is that you?” Fang Hua asked.

Hui stopped. “It’s me, Elder Sister.”

“I’m here with your body. Can you see anything where you are?”

Hui sat down, entering the lotus pose. He closed his eye and focused, zeroing in on his connection to Fang Hua. Slowly, a blurry image faded in.

His body sprawled in the poppies, head tilted back, arms sprawled about, peacefully asleep, ponytail draped through the flowers. It looked as if he’d laid down for a nap, nothing more. There wasn’t a single injury on him, nor was his cultivation disturbed.

Zhubi curled around him, fully three meters long. At the sight of Fang Hua, he trembled and did his best to look fierce, but even then, his body began to twist belly-up. He managed to resist for another few seconds, then rolled over, playing dead.

Hui breathed out a sigh of relief. Everything’s in working order, and Zhubi’s safe, too. “Fang Hua, did you run into Sis Mei?”

The world bobbed up and down. “She’s left the realm. She’s safe.”

A weight lifted off Hui’s shoulders. He relaxed. Thank goodness. Now, even if Chen Wuya does something strange, Sis Mei is safe.

It would be even better if I could get Li Xiang and Fang Hua out of danger, too, but Li Xiang’s soul is stuck with me, and if I send Fang Hua away… well, will Starbound Sect kill the jiangshi first, or will Jin Xian, restored to control of their body, eat half the sect first as a masterless fourth-stage jiangshi? In any case, I need to keep her with me.

He moved Fang Hua closer and directly put a hand to his forehead. Using his connection with Fang Hua as the foundation, he reached out to his own inert body, trying to form a connection with it once more.

Fang Hua shook her head. “It won’t work. There’s some kind of—”

A powerful wave of expulsion flew out at him. Hui flinched back, retracting his hand.

“…expulsion force that refuses all connections,” Fang Hua finished with a sigh.

“I can’t connect to my body?” Hui murmured, looking at Fang Hua’s hand. He clenched it and looked back at his body. I suppose if it was that easy, Li Xiang would have already crossed back over. She’s been sitting on top of her body in the other realm this whole time, after all.

I can’t connect to my body, but… I can connect to another body. Fang Hua’s, for instance. This is just a connection, but what if I made it a full soul possession?

“Don’t soul-possess me,” Fang Hua muttered.

“Not you, Elder Sister,” Hui replied, rapidly adding another layer to his mental barrier. Stop reading my thoughts, everyone!

“Tell your Elder Sister that if she interrupts your thoughts again, this expert is going to make sure she never thinks again,” Chen Wuya muttered darkly.

Hui glanced at him, pressing his lips together in fear, then reached out to Fang Hua again. “Er, Elder Sister, I’m with someone really scary right now, could you please keep quiet?” And what happened to you not reading my thoughts, Chen Wuya!

“Eh? Sure,” Fang Hua said.

Chen Wuya scoffed and turned away.

Where was I? A full soul possession. On the ghouls… but no, didn’t Fa Chuyou say a ghoul-ghost fusion was extremely difficult? Hmm… I feel like… I’ve seen someone soul-possess something successfully. Something like…

The lotus beasts!

Ah, it’s hard to argue that either mother or daughter successfully soul-possessed their lotus beast, but in both cases, the lotus beast seems to have taken after them, at least physically. Doesn’t that suggest that it’s possible to have the lotus beast take after someone more than just physically, but in terms of allowing a soul possession, as well?

I wouldn’t soul-possess Bai Jingwen’s lotus beast, either. After all, I don’t know if her soul is simply sleeping inside her, like Jin Xian and Fang Hua. But… I wonder if I can grow a new lotus beast? A lotus beast… for me.

Or, no—not a soul possession. A soul… inheritance. I don’t need this True Self Realm to reject my escape technique, as well! But it’s not as if I’m swapping to someone else’s body. I’m growing a body from my qi, for me. It… should count, right?

It’s worth a try, anyways. Better than sitting here and waiting to die.

“Fang Hua, I’m going to try to open my storage ring. Cooperate with me, okay?” Hui requested, reaching for his ring.

Fang Hua grunted in affirmation. Hui felt her qi grow thin, offering a place for his to pass through.

He reached to his storage ring and pressed his qi toward it. There was a moment’s hesitation, but then it opened. The storage ring seemed hesitant, as though it wanted to close again. Before it could, Hui quickly called out the lotus beast’s seed. A large, black seed pod fell into Fang Hua’s hand, the death qi seal still branded into its surface.

He passed his hand over it, removing the seal. Instantly, a sprout pushed out of the seed, and the lotus beast began to reform.

Hui put the seed over his body’s heart and hovered his hand over it. He called to the life qi in his body without directly touching it with his death qi, for fear the death qi would negate the life qi. His body twitched. A golden songbird emerged from his dantian and fluttered into the lotus beast’s seed.

Even as it did, Hui reached out, distantly guiding the life qi the same way he’d guided his death qi, back when he was first learning how to use it. Rather than allowing the lotus beast to consume it and run rampant, he focused the life qi on the seed, on replication. Another songbird flitted out of his dantian, then another. A core of life qi formed in the seed, in the lotus beast’s core.

The lotus beast grew around the seed, standing to her full height. Hui quickly fed the seed more life qi, but the lotus beast stepped away from his body. Hui grit his teeth. Dammit, with this remote-control death-qi technique, I can’t control the songbirds for very long. She’s too far! “Fang Hua, can you…”

Before he could give an order, the lotus beast stepped forward, holding cupped hands out toward Fang Hua. A lotus bud sprouted in her hands, blossomed, matured, and withered away, all in a few seconds, leaving only a lotus pod. The lotus pod dried and drooped, and a single black seed fell out of it.

Fang Hua caught it. Her hands blackened where it touched them, and she dropped it immediately, as if it was hot. Fierce life qi emanated off the seed, even more than the lotus beast originally had.

Dropping her hands, the lotus beast looked around. Her eyes found Fang Hua, and a vicious light sprung up in them. She darted toward Fang Hua.

“The seed—” Fang Hua shouted.

“Elder Sister, don’t worry. I have it under control,” Hui said. Using Fang Hua’s hands, he made a handsign and re-activated the death qi seal. As the lotus beast punched toward Fang Hua’s face, her hand withered up and crumpled, then her arm, then her shoulder. The withering spread through her body and face, and she let out a pitiful scream. At last, her body dried up completely and fell away, leaving only the seed behind. Fang Hua caught it again, but this one didn’t burn her hands.

Silence. Hui breathed heavily, somehow exhausted. Back in the dried poppies, he wiped his brow and rubbed his face, forcing himself to focus. It’s almost over. If everything goes right, I’ll be out of this trap in no time.

Fang Hua stared at the seed in her hands, then the one on the ground. Her brows furrowed faintly. “Xiao Hui, did you just… make a girl pregnant with your qi?”

Hui’s jaw dropped. He blinked. All thoughts stopped. “Er, I… what?”

“The lotus beast, she…”

“She’s not actually a girl! She’s not… a human girl. I didn’t… it’s just a seed. Plants make seeds all the time. They don’t even need a different plant’s pollen to do it. It’s… normal. Probably,” Hui muttered under his breath.

“I better not get pregnant after all this,” Fang Hua grumbled.

“Elder Sister, I have no intention of getting you pregnant,” Hui replied earnestly.

“That’s what they all say,” Fang Hua replied.

Hui frowned. “Can jiangshi even get pregnant?”

“I didn’t think plants could, but you managed it,” Fang Hua said.

“She wasn’t… she only looks like a person! She isn’t actually a person, she’s a plant. And she didn’t get pregnant, she produced a seed. It’s different. All I did is a little bit of assisted pollination, at worst. She’s… it’s a plant. It’s fine,” Hui insisted.

“Uh huh,” Fang Hua said skeptically.

“I’m making a clone, okay? That’s all this is. Clone-making. That’s a normal thing normal cultivators do all the time,” Hui said.

“Sure it is,” Fang Hua replied.

“It isn’t?” Hui asked. I actually don’t know. Maybe it isn’t in this world. Unless the triplets count, I haven’t seen anyone else make a clone…

“It is. Just not… like that,” Fang Hua said.

This world is far too prudish! First qi-sharing is a no-go, and now, even a little bit of assisted pollination is frowned upon? No wonder my stallion novel plan went awry. This world is simply too close-minded.

Hui shook his head, forcing himself back to the problem at hand. “Elder Sister, I’m going to try passing my soul through you into the seed. If you need to make any preparations, please do so now.”

“Let me meditate for a moment to clear my meridians and settle my cultivation,” she requested.

“Understood. Call out to me when you’re ready.” Hui retracted himself from Fang Hua and began to meditate himself. I need to make sure there’s no issues with my cultivation, ensure everything’s up to speed. If I don’t, I…

Very little qi remained in his dantian. The wind blew, and nearly blew him apart. Hui shuddered from the cold, grasping his robes to him. What happened?

“You spent too long communicating with the other side of the realm. Breaking the seal like that expends energy. Much longer, and you would have died.” A hand pressed against his back. Qi passed into him, which Hui quickly converted to death qi and circulated, rebuilding his lost energy. His breathing settled, and the realm became less cold once more.

“Thank you, Senior,” Hui said, opening his eyes.

Chen Wuya stood over him, a hand to his back. At seeing Hui awake, he harrumphed and turned away, lifting his hand. “You can thank me by getting me out of here.”

I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. But… he did help me. Maybe it’s…

No, no, no, Hui. This madman has already unprovokedly attacked me and declared that he’d have killed me if he could, and he’s the reason behind all the soul transferal. He’s a demonic cultivator of unknown power, and equally unstable. I’m willing to bet that the second I do what he wants and get him out of here, he’ll turn around and tear my throat out. If I let him out, I might as well sign my own death warrant.

Besides, what about Fen Long? If he was able to seal Chen Wuya here, he’s equally powerful, if not more powerful. I don’t need to insult a Senior that scary by releasing the seal he created!

He glanced at Chen Wuya a beat later, but Chen Wuya didn’t react. Hui breathed out. Seems like he wasn’t reading my thoughts at that moment. I’m safe.

Either that, or he doesn’t care what my plan is…